Tha Beat Down

ocean view from hampton university, virginia

pretty sunshine wallpaper for you
....somewhere between virginia and tenessee

logik and bo performing @ coops records

beautiful sun hiding behind the clouds...i really like this one

frederick douglas statue in front of holmes hall:
morgan state university, baltimore, MA

some pretty girl @ coops...sorry, forgot your name

another pretty girl @ hampton university

female half of college tour...virginia state university

male half of college tour...virginia state university

happy belated 4/20 everybody!!!

THA BEAT DOWN!! Producer "combine" to showcase beats and talent

L (on the left) and Big Brotha Beat Down...best known as PJ

(from the left)
Logik, Harvy Allbangers, and Bo Beniz
@ coops records 47th Street Chicago

Bo Beniz, Harvy Allbangers, Logik

Juice and Shorty K performing @ coops records

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! whuts going on, peeps?? Back in action after being away for so long. As you can see, I FINALLY got a card reader (yesterday), and I'm updating your "Issues" photo file. A plethora of pics for your visual and artisitic pleasure...enjoy.


Lately....hmm...BOY DO I HAVE SOME STORIES TO TELL YOU!!!! But seriously, I've been busy as usual...beats, rhymes, and life is my story. I went to the east coast in mid-april, visited several schools, and had one hell of a good time. Though I had a hard time not thinking about music 24/7, I got the chance to interact with people i would have not paid attention to otherwise. Overall, great experience. I also found out that...

VIRGINIA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! OH MY FKING GOD!!!

In other news, member of D-12 and Detroit MC Proof was killed in a fight at a club...FUCK!! WHY DOES EVERYBODY HAVE TO PULL A GUN??? It aint all that serious, really, it isn't. Box it out or somethin'...life aint somethin' that comes back once it's gone. Guns are some of the worst things created by man, and the shouldn't be put into the wrong hands. I personally hate war, bloodshed, and all of that stuff. It shouldn't be necessary, but in the world we live in, alot of people won't get the message without a gun being waved in their faces.

Here in chicago, the chicago police and local radio station V103 are holding a "no questions asked" gun drop-off, urging people to turn in their guns in the light of recent gun violence--most being accidental killings of innocent bystanders. As an added incentive, they will give a $100 gift card for every gun turned in. If I owned a gun, I would turn it in...


As far as me, I've been grindin' hard. I went to a monthly conference called The Beat Down on this past saturday, as well as a fair number of other chicago producers. The event organizer, Kevin Shine, gave a pretty informative lecture on how this thing we call the music industry really works. I learned there are several MORE steps needed before hitting that big plateau we all know as "fame". "Fame" is not really my concern, I just want to be known as a man who loves music more than sex--THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID IT!!
Anyway, we played our beats and looked for reactions within the room. I went there to see where I was at among the other producers/beatmakers around here, and I think I did pretty well, if I say so myself.

there were some guys in there with some serious heat, like DJ Ozone. The beats he played were sampling pretty recent stuff, like within the past 6-8 years...so from that first meeting, I can't really say he's a serious beat-digger...BUT, his shit was so hot that I couldn't hate on him. The first beat he played made me damn near shit my pants...gave me that feeling. I love that feeling...it feels like someone cares about this music thing as much as I do. I also found out that he runs a beat battle regularly....YOU KNOW I'M SIGNING UP!!!

Speaking of beat battles, there's one I'm going to next week: May 4th @ 6pm. Its at the Crocodile Lounge on wells and Van buren...or...

The Beatbattle will be located at The Crocodile Lounge 211 W Van Buren It
will begin at 6:30
There a $5 cover if ya'll are gonna bring yall peoples

(copied from an email message)

Judges
John Monopoly (Kanye West Manager)
Jeffery Lane (Chicago Recording Company)
DJ Lil Jon (WGCI)


so...that means that I have to bring my A-Game...I want to blow people's minds. I want to stop someone's heart when they hear my music...or have uncontrollable neck spasms. But, in order to do that, I have to show people that I belong. So, I'm workin hard to show that aspect of my beatmaking...

And...next week, I have an album release party to attend. Guess what? It's the nite before the battle...so next week will be nothing short of tiring, but its worth it. Anything that gets me closer to getting exposure is worth it.

One more thing...

I'm giving up meat--temporarily...I'm going to experiment with this, and see how my body takes it. From there, we'll see how Issues looks as a vegetarian...

With that, here are some beats

Yoga Neckwork
Sometimes
Butter Fried Bread

For Production or photography services
http://www.myspace.com/therealissues
2manyissues@gmail.com

Peace and olive oil
- Issues

Listen to this While Eating Hagen Daas Ice Cream

Yo...Long time no see. I've been waitin till I get a card reader for my camera, because somehow the usb port stopped working. I have no time to repair it, as I am taking pictures all the time and I dont want to be without it--even if only for a few days. Anyway, here's one I snapped while at the train station on my way to school.

Musically, I have been building non-stop--at least until last week. I ran out of jusice, becuase I've been trying to juggle school and work and fixing my car and music and learning the inner workings of female minds and working on my lyrical skills and saving money for pro tools and buying sleeves for my records and cleaning my records and finding a spot to move my lab to and sharpening my skills on the keys and studying Dilla's work objectively and battling ashy limbs due to a shortage of lotion and trying to work out more often because i'm beginning to gain weight around the mid-section and finding artists to buy my beats and promoting myself to already signed artists and trying to decide on what school i want to attend when i graduate and learning about south african folk music and bettering myself and getting rid of the selfish part of me that chooses to ignore other peoples feelings and looking for time to update this wonderfully put together website of mine.

So, as you can see, I've been pretty busy.


I've included a couple of tracks, but I really can't explain the ideas behind them--they're just spurs of inspiration. So, after you finish reading, the treats are waiting for you.

Good news--Dilla got a semi-cover story in Scratch Magazine. I say "semi-cover story" because ?uestlove, the drum genius, is on the cover along with the Roots sportin' the "RIP J DILLA" t-shirt. Its about goddamn time that Dilla got something on the cover of a main-stream magazine. He has a "mention" in many of the hip-hop mags across the globe (ie XXL, the Source, URB, etc.), even got a REAL cover story in the canadian magazine Pound (they even have a pdf of the entire magazine...HELL YEAH!!!). MTV put out an extensive article on the brotha, but I still havent the slightest clue if they put anything about him on television, as I haven't been watching the boob tube lately (too distracting).

In other news...MADLIB'S LP JUST DROPPED!!!

As far as me? I'm just takin life a day at a time. It's really not good for me to look far into the future, as I know if I keep on doin what I'm doin everything will work out.

I've been missing my aunt lately. Tonda started me on the path towards music by sitting me infront of her congas and playing rhythms with me. She passed away about 10 years ago, and I just recently found a picture of her and I. My family, or at least my mother and I, aren't really big on pictures. I guess that's why they interest ME so much, because I didn't have that same passion for them when I was younger.

I'll scan the picture when I get the chance, it wasn't too long (maybe a year or two) before her passing. I think the cause of it was stomach cancer...not too sure, though.

Welp, here are the tracks.

Listen to this While eating Hagen Daas Ice cream
Hey!!
the Name Game
Return to Good Graces
Keep Up
Friday at Midnite
Neo Soul/Outer Space
Song Forgotten

Peace
- Issues

Contact Info:
2manyissues@gmail.com
therealissues@gmail.com

oh yeah, don't be afraid to check out the myspace page http://www.myspace.com/therealissues